Embossed printing or braille makes texts of all sorts accessible to the blind, mainly by way of very expensive books. However, it is difficult to convey to them reading matter that is neither typed nor printed nor even tied down to letters, books, etc. As a rule, short texts such as news, summaries or the like will reach the blind by auditory means.
Apparatuses have been developed recently for setting a line which may be sensed for braille reading. An example is disclosed by DE-OS No. 30 33 078 comprising a perforated drum and electromagnetically actuatable pins extending therethrough to form single lines which may be sensed tactually. Such devices are, however, quite expensive and hardly or not at all suitable for continuous reading in the manner almost exclusively practised by the seeing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,622,759, a device has been described that is intended as a part of a print-reading machine for the blind. It includes a perforated endless belt which receives pellets of cubical, spherical or other shape from a code-feeding unit and which is moved to an output unit then. There, each pellet may be engaged by a punch to lift movable members, presumably character-bearing pads to be sensed. The setting operation is tedious and prone to troubles since a rather complex mechanism must be operated in a series of steps.
In the prior art, there is thus a lack of reading means for the blind in the manner of news in brief, short information or the like, whereas wall news-sheets, bulletin boards, etc. are something unheededly normal to the remaining population.